PIONEERING ROMANCE

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 353, 2 April 1910, Page 10

PIONEERING ROMANCE

THE BIRTH OF A TOWN IN WEST CANADA. j i Six years ago, under the leadership of a Mr. Barr, a party of British emigrants with their wives and children | sailed in the C.P.R. s.s. Lake Manitoba,' with a view to settling in Western Canada. Saskatoon was the most westerly point they could then reach by train, jmd in order to settle on the land allotted to them by the Canadian Government the'party had to trek two hundred miles further west. This journey was accomplished under great difficulties in ox-waggons, the progress averaging about fifteen miles a day. Very soon the Canadian Northern Railway surveyed a line from Saskatoon to Edmondton, and the inexperienced but willing settlers set to work making the track and laying the rails. This brought a little money into the colony. Meanwhile pro. visions had to be freighted by oxen two hundred miles across the prairie from Saskatoon; the price of flour was as high as £2 per cwt., and everything else in proportion. The name of Lloydminster was chosen for their town, in honor of their first minister, Archdeacon Lloyd. To-day, through their grit and determination to succeed, the town is one of the most important between Saskatoon and Edmonton. It boasts of three hotels, two banks, two elevators, an electric power-house, and a mayor and corporation. Geographically, the town stands in a unique position, onehalf being in the province of Alberta and the other in Saskntchpwnn. Tho Alberta side is called the village, and has a separate Board of Control, unlike the Saskatchewan, side, 'which is <rovemed by a mayor and corporation. The railwav station 'is in Alberta and the post office in Saskatchewan, and the two .sides are divided by the fourth meridian line. The church was erected and built entirelv of logs cut and hauled bv the members of the settlement, and stands to this dav. although energy is being 1 directed towards a new brick building with a. larger seating capacity.